Unifying Mods

[Ishantil]

Greetings!

I tend to like mods from more than one source. And in the interest in that, I'd like to learn more about how the various files work.

Could anyone give me a quick rundown on how the files where you actually add items to them work? Do they have an ID number or something that needs to be unique?

If one were to unify two mods and say the items.xml and strings.xml files both had modifications, how would you unify the two?

Thanks!

[Max_Caine]

The Xenonaut configuration file thread gives a brief rundown on what each file does.

Adding Items

Adding items is easy. If the xml file is set up for an Excel spreadsheet, you can directly add files there. Otherwise you can just past directly into the xml file itself, even if you don't have a spreadhseet program (or have one that isn't compatible). There are no unique ID numbers per line.

Unifiying several mods

The most important thing to do is to ensure that the mods you want to unify are not antagonistic. That is, the alterations that one mod makes does not overwrite another mod. For example, Sathra's Little Mod would be antagonistic to Mytheos' suppression mod, as if you unified the two, either the alterations to ballistic weapons in the Little Mod would remain, or the alterations to suppression in Mytheos' mod would remain. WalrusJones' Tactical Ballistic Expansion and my Warehouse of the Strange and Unsual are complimentary. While both alter the weapons_gc file, my mod adds weapons, and does not alter any of the exsiting weapons, while Walrus' mod adds and alters.

The prmary area for antagonism that I can see is in items.xml and strings.xml, as these are used a lot (strings more than items), so each strings.xml file is it's own special snowflake. . The solution I can see is to maintain a "master" strings.xml file, which you cull from a "pure" game (not sullied by any mods). Then you identify which additions have been made to strings (an online diff tool will help if you aren't using UNIX), then simply cut and paste the additions in to a third "unify" strings.xml (oh my gosh this would be like SO much easier in UNIX. Why am I using Windows again?). It's important to keep the master strings.xml pure, as that's your base comparator against any altered strings file.

TL;DR

• Get a strings.xml file from a vanilla copy of Xenonauts
  
• Use a diff tool to compare this to a modded version of string.xml
  
• Cut and paste the new or altered lines into a "unify" strings.xml
  
• ?????
  
• Profit!

Edited August 12, 2013 by Max_Caine

[WalrusJones]

In addition, I am progressively veering into a relm where WATBE would conflict with Little Mod, Mythos's mod, and the like more and more.

More and more base XML is being modified.

The House of the strange, which Max_Caine maintains is totally non-invasive, and wouldn't have any problems with any of the mods in this list.

[Ishantil]

Thanks for the writeup, Max!

So there are no unique identifiers in either strings.xml or items.xml?

[WalrusJones]

Items does have some things that conflict.

IF you were merging a mod into mine, items like the farmer shotgun, AK47, and other vanilla weapons that I have made mysteriously accessable would become TOTALLY inaccessible from overwriting bits of my items XML with theirs (Unless said weapons were modified to be "Unlimited" Instead of normal.

[Max_Caine]

@Ishantil: Well, there are no ID numbers, if you're worried about that. However, these are set up for Excel, so if you ran them through a spreadsheet program that wasn't Excel, that spreadhseet might add encoding which may cause you problems later. It did me (OpenOffice) so I've given up and run it all through a text editor now (until such time as I can actually afford Excel. Oy! It's expensive!).

[WalrusJones]

@Ishantil: Well, there are no ID numbers, if you're worried about that. However, these are set up for Excel, so if you ran them through a spreadsheet program that wasn't Excel, that spreadhseet might add encoding which may cause you problems later. It did me (OpenOffice) so I've given up and run it all through a text editor now (until such time as I can actually afford Excel. Oy! It's expensive!).

I hear you...

[Ishantil]

I'm using the latest version of LibreOffice Calc. I hadn't considered it making edits to the XML tags. I'll keep an eye out.

Do the XML files in question need to be in any particular order? I noticed they are basically alphabetacal, is that a requirement? If not, people could add their mod stuff in blocks, which would make it a lot easier to reconcile.

[lightgemini]

It would be best to add tags to the name of the mods thread like [Adition] or [Rebalance], and even separate mod components into non conflicting and conflicting files if aplicable.

Also it would be easier to make users get used to add the files content directly to their game files whenever it doesnt pose a lot of work,so they can build their own custom setting, since the simplest of mods will overwrite everythingint in the files it uses thus forcing users to make choices. A wiki tutorial for this would make everybodys life easier.

Note: Another cool solution would be if the mod loader in the launcher would use a checkable list and add files on top of the previous ones Elder Scrolls style. This would still cause overwrites but would be easier to add compatibility files to make mods work with each other and resolve conflicts. Then a master load order list could be developed for everybody to use. As it stands now the way the loader works is rather weak.

Edited August 12, 2013 by lightgemini

[thothkins]

so each strings.xml file is it's own special snowflake. . The solution I can see is to maintain a "master" strings.xml file, which you cull from a "pure" game (not sullied by any mods)

That bit made me smile. Thanks for the tips Max.

[Ishantil]

Sadly, I don't know enough about the modding to write a wiki. All these are good ideas, though. Properly documented "I added this" sections in the code would be really good. We should all do that.

[WalrusJones]

Wait. You lost me.

[Ishantil]

Properly documented tusks, I mean.

[Max_Caine]

I'm uncertain what the effect of adding comments to xml files formatted for spreadsheet use would be. Probably nothing.

[WalrusJones]

It may screw with their spreadsheet-functionality, but on the otherhand.....

It would be fairly vital for easy mod unification.

Fortunately, Max Caines mods are very easy to integrate, I have even considered including the glitter glass grenade.

[Max_Caine]

I have many irons in the fire. So many irons in the fire. Yessss......

EDIT: Walrus, if you want to integrate it, please feel free.

Edited August 13, 2013 by Max_Caine

[Ishantil]

Glitterglass grenade? Hmm...clearly I need to be looking into these older mods.

[thothkins]

A handy Mod List is a sticky on the Modding subforum for your perusal. Updated through to the start of this month.

Excerpt:

The glitterglass grenade is thrown as a normal grenade. However, research into alien anti-gravity drives enables the grenade to hover over it's target. There, it exploits a key alien weakness to free form disco by emitting assorted lights from it's rotating, shimmering surface. Entranced aliens, making disco shapes on the battlescape, can then be shot from close range.

Glitterglass grenades are available in Chic, Heatwave and Abba variations, depending on the alien race expected to be encountered.

[Ishantil]

Exemplary, to be sure.

[WalrusJones]

"The Glitterglass grenade is an upgrade of the smoke grenade. It has 100% coverage on detonation, a 70% reduction for shots targeted through it and reduces los by -6. It also only has a 10% per-tile dispersion chance every turn. However, Glitterglass is toxic so anything entering the cloud suffers a 15HP chemical hit, it costs $5000 and a unit of alien alloys per grenade manufactured. It's intended as an outdoors style of weapon, something that provides a useful covering cloud when advancing across open terrain without phasing out the smoke grenade."

I don't see any Diva's in here.

Or Chics.

[Ishantil]

I like how far we've gotten off topic, btw.